12. Callum
Callum
“I have one more idea.” Letia stops in front of me, out of breath.
Greer glances up from polishing her sword and hitches an eyebrow. “Is there anywhere else on the island to search?”
“Just come with me.” Letia rolls her eyes, not waiting for us to follow as she tugs her cloak tightly around her chin and trudges away.
She knows we’re right behind her, just as we have been every time she’s had a thought over the past two days. So far, we’ve found nothing more than dirt, stone, and rotted branches, but clearly, she’s not ready to give up yet.
If anything, she’s as determined as ever. Locating the graveyard has become her purpose when nothing has cut through her grief lately. She clings to the hope we’ll find the rings. That we’ll have a way for the humans to escape the island.
I understand letting the mission be what keeps you going, so I don’t bother asking questions as I follow her into the trees.
Letia skirts around a thorny bush, moving deeper into the forest. We’ve explored this section of the island, but today, she weaves to her right, where we continued straight last time. I thought it was a dead end, but she points down to a path that’s been buttoned up by vines.
I slice a blade through the branches, revealing a trail we’ve yet to explore.
“Elorie and I used to sneak off to this clearing when we were younger,” Letia says. “We always thought the markings on the trees were related to the markings on the prison. But after seeing the ones in Emual’s journal, I don’t think it was for the prisoners at all.”
We follow the path deeper, Greer at my back as the path narrows. Until we reach a small clearing.
Letia walks to a tree on her left, pulling back the dead vines to reveal dark grooves carved into the bark. The rune of Sarrow.
“To Sarrow the rings must go.” Greer repeats the words from Emual’s journal.
My gaze drops to the ground where a blanket of moss covers the dirt. I wouldn’t think anything of it if I was walking through none the wiser. But the foliage is slightly thicker in certain spots, where most of the rest of the island is brittle leaves and dying trees.
This is definitely a graveyard, but a large one with no indication of where the graves are. We could be digging for weeks and find nothing.
“Where do you think he’s buried?” Greer asks, her gaze roaming over the clearing.
“I have no idea, but it’s going to be a long day.” I slide the shovel off my shoulder and strike the ground closest to the marking. It’s frozen and unyielding, and it takes all my strength to pull up each shovel of dirt.
Letia returns to the village to help the villagers pack when the first hole comes up empty, while Greer grabs a shovel and helps.
Sweat drips down both our faces as we work. In the Ley Court, I wouldn’t break a sweat, but we’ve been without magic for four months now, and my heartbeat is fighting to resist the Beating. If the sea was passable, I’d have returned to Ruse Village by now to refuel my magic stores, but it’s not.
All I can do is dig and hope.
The first body we uncover isn’t Fae. Emual chose to be buried in a human graveyard, proving just how resistant he was to the beliefs of his people. I hope that works in our favor, and he was as paranoid about trusting anyone with the rings as he was about trusting the gods with his soul.
Greer uncovers another body. Fae this time, but it’s not Emual. His Guard armor is rusted from years in the ground, and he’s no more than bone and vines.
Static warns of a storm rolling in, but there’s no time to wait it out, so I keep digging. Rain pours, drenching us as we cut through dense, stony dirt and slop through mud from the sudden downpour.
Swinging my shovel, it clinks against something metal.
“Found another one,” I yell for Greer, who is digging at the other side of the clearing, working her way toward me.
She swings her shovel over her shoulder and comes my way to help. The rain thins just as we uncover a sheet of metal in the ground.
“Why do you think this one is covered?” Greer slams her shovel into the dirt, creating a post to lean against.
“I’m not sure, but those look like protection runes.”
“You think he was guarding his corpse?”
I grab the metal and lift. “Or hiding what was beneath it.”
There’s nothing to indicate this is Emual, except that his armor suggests he was a guard. In his hands is a pouch that clinks when I peel it from his skeleton.
“Is that—”
I open the pouch and grin. “We found them. Now let’s hope they work.”
Greer and I rush back to the village just as the storm finishes its second surge. Letia is helping Seren pack food stores, but her eyes light up when she sees the bag in my hands.
“Is that them?”
I hold the bag out for her, and she peeks inside.
From my rough count, there are well over the twenty we’ll need.
But I didn’t pull them out to check because the metal was unsettling when I touched it.
It didn’t burn or hurt necessarily, but it pushed against something inside me.
Like the sting of the aeraliss resisted my very being.
It makes sense with how aeraliss repels magic to protect humans.
Letia reaches in and pulls out a single silver band. The metal is covered in glowing veins that remind me of the ones in Elorie’s mother’s sword. Her eyebrows scrunch as she turns the ring over in her hand.
“I feel it.” Letia holds it up to the sky, and the metal shimmers. “Almost as if it’s saying something.”
Around us, a few have stopped to watch Letia with the ring. She slips it on, wincing.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Letia clutches her hand to her chest. “It just stings a little. That’s all.”
“It might be the effects of the metal,” Greer guesses.
“Probably.” Letia holds out her hand.
Where the glowing veins once shone through the metal, they’re dark now.
Seren steps forward, a few more gathering around her. “These are them? They’ll let us walk through the realm?”
“They should.” Unfortunately, there’s only one way to confirm it, and in doing that, there will be no going back.
Letia must be thinking the same, because she hesitates for a moment before passing out the rings. But like me, she knows there’s no other choice.
Seren is the first to take the bag and claim a ring for herself. Villagers gather as they pass it around, slipping the rings on their fingers. None of them react like Letia, who rubs her finger like the ring is uncomfortable.
Elorie will never forgive me if something happens to her best friend, so all I can do is hope that’s not a sign of things to come.
“I’ll pass out the rest.” Thomas takes the bag to deliver rings to the few who aren’t here.
But just as he turns the corner, the ground shakes.
Letia catches herself on my arm, and where her ring brushes my skin, it chills. Greer stumbles against the door to Seren’s house. One quake is followed by another, and the island groans.
“It’s happening.” Panic surges as humans rush from their houses and gather in the street.
Below us, the ground shakes, and even as I stand in place, it’s like the island tilts and everything is suddenly off. A ball rolls down the cobblestone street.
“We need to get them out of here,” Greer says, eyeing the end of the gates where a tree crashes to the ground.
“It’s only been five days since Elorie went inside.” Letia is panicking, backing up a step.
“I’ll wait for her.”
Greer shakes her head. “You promised her—”
“That I’d only wait seven days. Take them through. Guide them to the other side, and I’ll be right behind you. But I’m not leaving until that time is up.”
“Even if Alyssium crumbles?”
I hold the standoff with Greer. Her chin high, frustration building in her eyes. It’s clear there’s a lot on her mind, but she doesn’t continue to argue. She knows there’s nothing she can say to convince me. I’ll keep my promise to Elorie, but not before it’s time.
“You can do this. Take them, and I’ll meet you on the other side.”
Greer nods once, swallowing hard before turning to the villagers gathering in the street. “Everyone, get your things; we need to go now.”
People panic, running into their houses. Everyone gathers what they can carry while shingles fly through the air. Glancing up, the prison’s shadows stretch, covering the island. What’s stirring might be from the realm. But I sense it’s something deeper.
When everyone is ready, Greer and Letia lead the nineteen remaining humans through the gates. Emual’s words ring in my ear as I take the back of the line to protect them on their journey through the forest.
The first were not afraid until they left. Only then did the weight of what was to come press over their shoulders.
Wind gusts through the trees as the ground shivers. A pulse guides us through the forest, and each thrum is like a ticking beat. A countdown as we near the sword.
We can do this.
I can do this.
The group nears the pulse, and whispers turn to murmurs.
“What is it?”
“How?”
“Stop; we can’t.”
I push through the villagers to see what they’re talking about. To find out what’s stopped them in their path. And when my gaze lands on the spot where the sword was seated earlier, I freeze at what’s before me.